It's a strange land that leaves me with different feelings whenever I come to rediscover it.

Steps to heaven: The familiar terraced fields in Sa Pa attract many domestic and foreign visitors.Sa Pa is an incredibly picturesque town in the Hoang Lien Son Mountain Range near the Chinese border in northwestern Viet Nam, 350km from Ha Noi.

It can be explored almost year-round from March to early December. Vietnamese most like to visit during June and July to escape the summer heat in other parts of the country. Sa Pa is 1,500m above sea level so the weather is quite mild, and cold at night.